No response from sellers during attorney review (agent, lawyers, contract) - Real Estate -Brokers, appraisals, development, lease, investing, relocation, apartments, houses, condos, values, mortgages, loans... - City-Data Forum

NewMom08 · 03-16-2012, 09:02 AM

We are currently in the process of purchasing a home. We have been in attorney review for 5 days now. My attorney has sent the attorney review letter to the sellers' attorney. However, we have not received a response or return calls. It looks like the sellers are stalling potentially for a better offer to come along. Are they backing out of the deal? Should we ask them to response within 24 hours? Any advice would be appreciated.

manderly6 · 03-16-2012, 10:30 AM

I assume you asked for some kind of change to the contract? Have your attorney send another letter saying you are going to cancel the contract if they don't respond in a certain amount of time. That should motivate them.

But really, your agent and lawyer should be able to advise you on this.

AnthonyB · 03-17-2012, 11:42 AM

I had a situation like this. The sellers attorney was just really slow and unresponsive and we had sellers who were very much on the edge.
We just went with the flow and eventually they responded. The couple in question were also splitting up so that complicated response times.
We eventually dropped the house due to other issues but were very unimpressed by the sellers team. I found them to be extremely unprofessional. I understand sellers taking time over changes and decisions but for lawyers and agents to just not return calls and emails in a timely fashion, even to say they have passed on a request and are waiting for their clients is just embarrassing.

ETex2 · 03-19-2012, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NewMom08

We are currently in the process of purchasing a home. We have been in attorney review for 5 days now. My attorney has sent the attorney review letter to the sellers' attorney. However, we have not received a response or return calls. It looks like the sellers are stalling potentially for a better offer to come along. Are they backing out of the deal? Should we ask them to response within 24 hours? Any advice would be appreciated.

Might be backing out of the deal. Maybe their attorney thinks that your attorney's review and letter is frivolous and no reply is necessary or forthcoming. Not uncommon. It depends at what stage the lawyers get involved. They are generally needed to review paperwork prior to closing, but in offers to have an attorney get involved might just irritate the seller to the point of blowing you off.